Post on 27-Sep-2019
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Stores Organization and Quality Control
• Stores Organization
• Procedures Followed in Respect of Materials
• Quality Control
Chapter-III
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In this chapter, the researcher tries to explain and analyse
the importance of stores location, organizational structure,
procedures followed in respect of receipt of materials and quality
control.
Actual procurement, storage and preservation activities
form the last link in the material management process. Quality
Control of raw materials, storage of materials, parts and supplies
are an integral part of the process by which the supply department
maintains a non-stop flow of the items maintained from the points
of supply from outside the organization to their points of usage in
the organization.
The stores management plays a crucial role in smooth
running of an organization. The purpose of the stores is to provide
uninterrupted material flow to the work-sights of the various
departments in the organization. By this, one can understand that
the stores is not just a dumping yard but an important element of
the economy of the business organization.
Reorganising the significance of stores in majority of
industrial firms in the United States of America, receiving and
stores departments are attached either to the purchase department
or lumped it along with procurement and other related activities
in the materials management department.
In the history, we come across names like ‘Kothari’,
‘Bhandari’ which were derived from the nature of work such
families have been dealing with, like stocking and controlling
goods and material (Gopala Krishnan. P, and Shandilya. M.S.,
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1980) Store keeping involves the receipt, storing and issue of
materials, concerned with the physical handling and well being of
stocks (Anantha Krishna V, 1972). Storage means holding in
custody of all kinds of stores and materials including spare parts,
components, semi-processed and finished products. This was put
forth by Institute of Costs and Works Accountants of India.
Stores management assumes greater importance in the
Indian context because of the stiff supply positions of materials. It
is a known fact that majority of the industrial undertakings in
India are maintaining four to six months’ inventories. For certain
imported items, it is as high as 24 months. Thus, the stores
department is responsible for the receipt, identification, and
general inspection, keeping an eye on the levels of the stock for the
replenishment purpose and of all the incoming materials. Besides
these responsibilities, the stores department is also responsible for
safe storage of all work-in-progress, production materials,
maintenance material and other repair items. In some
organizations, the store is responsible for the finished goods
storage also. But, however, in ship building industry, after the
delivery of store items to the user departments and making an
entry to this effect in Electronic Data Processing (EDP) and ledger,
the stores department’s responsibility automatically ceases. The
stores department must protect the materials in its custody against
pilferage, unwanted drawings, unauthorized drawings, damage
and deterioration.
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For easy identification, the stores personnel need to classify
the items into various categories and attach the materials with
some codes i.e. codification and assign some marks to all the
materials in a manner which facilitates ready accessibility. Last but
not the least, the stores must control the issuance of the material in
a way that provides effective services for the production
operations. The responsibilities of the stores are :
(a) The receipt of equipment, raw material, tools, spare parts,
components, greases, and other items and verify them
against the purchase order placed with the supplier by
the organization and account for the said items.
(b) Arrange the received items at appropriate places, proper
storage and preservation of the items in accordance with
their nature, usage, value and importance.
(c) To meet the needs of the consuming department, by
proper issuing procedures and account for the
consumption.
(d) To help in verification and provide supporting data for
effective purchase action.
(e) To make higher ups aware of discrepancies, if any, like
abnormal consumption and accumulation of stock.
(f) To help in minimizing surpluses, obsolescence and scrap
through appropriate codification, preservation and
handling.
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(g) To maintain clean and tidy store place, so that the
material receipts, preservation, stocking and issue can be
done easily without any difficulty.
The stores location and layout have a bearing on the
organizational effectiveness. The general practice is that the stores
should be located in the proximity of the user departments so as to
minimize transportation and other handling expenditure and to
ensure timely supply of the necessary material to the consuming
departments/work places. In fixing the location of the stores, its
size and design etc., various determinants should be taken care of
by the industrial organizations. The determinants include nature
of industry, size and volume of transactions, type and value of
stocks, volume of stock to be held, handling, re-handling and
transport costs, security, safety requirements, statutory obligations
etc.
While planning the layout of the stores, the government
criteria would be free flow of materials, optimum utilization of
storage space sufficient space for material, men and handling
equipment and proper usage of equipment in stores such as racks,
pallets, shelves and preservation against light, rain and
temperature. Besides these factors, some other factors like number
of users and their location, the variety and volume of goods to be
handled, the distance from the central receiving station and the
accessibility of transportation are to be taken into account. The
stores block must have adequate light, ventilation, air circulation
facility, air conditioning, heating equipment, if necessary, which
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should be planned well in advance before construction of the
stores. Besides these, in order to get the maximum work from
stores personnel, it is necessary to create well working conditions.
Besides size, organization needs to consider its activity, size
of stock items, volume of transactions, kind of stock, the minimum
and maximum size of stock of each item to be held at any point of
time, of warehousing (carrying cost), transport, handling costs and
re-handling costs, statutory obligations like cold storage and
controlled temperate zones, insulated storage and finally, safety
and security requirements. In stores layout, space for material,
men, material handling equipment and appropriate allocation of
storage space for furniture such as shelves, racks and pallets is
required. It is the responsibility of the management to adopt
scientific measures for proper preservation of the material against
light, rain, fire and other such elements. In addition to the above
mentioned factors, the number of users and their location, the
variety and volume of items to be used and handled, the location
of the initial receiving and accessibility to the modes of
transportation are of great importance in drawing the layout of the
stores organization. As the stores and sub-stores have to be built
nearer to the user departments, larger organizations usually have
so many sub-stores attached to each consuming department.
Whereas, receiving of materials is done at the central receiving
stores. The stores block must have necessary and adequate
facilities such as heating equipment, cold storage, and other
facilities, which should be planned well in advance while
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constructing the storage building. To get optimum efficiency form
the stores personnel, proper facilities within the stores and
necessary working conditions must be provided while planning
the stores layout. The shipbuilding industry is basically an
assembling industry, which procures some thousands of various
items and equipment. These items and equipment must be stored
and maintained by the stores until the materials of different kinds
with different sizes and designs are issued to the various
departments. Adequate attention is to be paid for stores items and
equipment procured from aboard for easy identification and for
easy location. Certain items do not contribute directly to the
construction of ship. But these items have a bearing on the smooth
functioning of the industrial organization. These general items
include vegetables, edible oil, soaps, linen, electrical bulbs and
fittings, medicines, first aid peripherals, clothing, shoes, safety
kits, fire extinguishers etc. Certain other items go directly into the
construction of the ship. They include steel bars, steel sheets,
brass, copper and all items of wood, interior decoration items,
engine items, hull items, deck items. D.G. Set items etc.
Preservation of these items and their delivery at an appropriate
time as demanded by the user department is of utmost
significance. The timely delivery of items from stores to the user
department is possible only when the stores layout is well-
planned and enables the stores organization for the quick delivery
of the materials to the end user departments. The stores
organization of shipyard companies limited is given in chart 3.1.
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Chart-3.1
Stores Organisation of Selected Shipyard Companies
Stores Organization
The stores organization in all the shipyard companies is
headed by an officer-in-charge (stores) and he is responsible
directly to General Manager (Commercial). The General Manager,
CMD
GM (Commercial)
OIC (DGM) Stores
Section-In-Charge Section-In-Charge Section-In-Charge
Material receipts & Despatch, Warehousing, General Stock, Capital Items, Inventory Control, disposal, Preservation, Safety & Material Handling
1. HULL 2. Electrical 3. Engineering
Computerization of Stores
Interfacing with Purchase
Section & EDP
Dealing Officers, Store Keepers, Stores Attendants & Mazdoors
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(Commercial department), in turn, is responsible for Chairman-
cum-Managing Director and at the apex level there is a team of
Board of Directors. Under officer-in-charge (stores), there are three
different sections. Each one is responsible to discharge certain
responsibilities pertaining to stores organization. Section-in-charge
(1) is responsible for material receipts, preservation, warehousing,
distribution, inventory control, disposal of general stock and
capital items. Section-in-charge (II) is responsible for interfacing
with purchase section and planning department and Electronic
Data Processing section and this section-in-charge is also
responsible for computerization of stores. Section-in-charge (III) is
responsible for the project items which includes hull, electrical and
engineering items. Totally, there are five officers in the stores
organization including the officer-in-charge, three dealing officers
who are also the section-in-charges of the stores and one liaison
officer and are assisted by 58 storekeepers and equal number of
stores attendants. About 85 mazdoors are engaged in the stores
organization to provide continuous and uninterrupted flow of
supply of materials to various user departments. It is the
responsibility of the stores section for proper receipts, storage,
handling, issue of materials and accepting of in-coming and out-
going materials and arrangement of materials for inspection and
quality control. The stores section also provides necessary
information to General Manager (Commercial) on matters like
inventory levels, control and requirements. In all the selected
shipyard companies, the disposal of ferrous and non-ferrours,
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wood and steel, and other project items and the capital budget
items are now supervised by the stores section. The stores section,
through one section-in-charge is looking after computerization of
stores and Electronic Data Processing. The stores section in all the
selected shipyard companies is expected to despatch the material
as and when the user departments want them.
In reality, it was observed that whenever the stores section
received any material requisition notes, it will take four to five
hours to locate the items demanded by the user departments in its
material requisition notes. Only in the recent past, with
computerization of the stores, it is possible to know whether the
item is there or not. Earlier, it would have been highly difficult
without computerization to draw the material by the user
departments. This kind of situation can be managed very well
with codification and standardisation. In all the selected shipyard
companies, the stores section has been adopting the scientific
codification and standardization systems. It reduces this long time
of identification and thereby, the availability of the material to all
the concerned user departments is instant without any delay.
Procedures Followed in Respect of Materials
Basing on the orders received from the customers, the
corporate planning department suggests the commercial
department to initiate steps to procure the necessary material and
equipment required by the ship, which is going to be constructed
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by the company. Here starts the combined work of the commercial
department, purchase section and stores organization. Any
organization, which purchases materials, find it impracticable and
undesirable to bin or rack the goods as soon as they are received.
It is desirable to allot a specific space at the stores where materials
are received and inspected for quality and quantity viz-à-viz
purchase orders placed to ensure that they are suited to the
requirements and that they fulfil the terms and conditions of the
order. Material purchased, as per the unique specification,
invariably have many features that are subjected to inspection.
The sizeable number of items purchased by industrial firm does
require technical inspection. This should be done on a regular
basis for two compelling reasons. Firstly, it provides the
qualitative measurement of supplier’s quality performance, which
among other uses is essential to the development of an effective
supplier evaluation programme. Secondly, this kind of checks
helps to have a sound business practice. Efficient receipt of
material procedure reduces the lead-time and helps in effective
inventory control. To have a close watch of the incoming material
as far as possible, the receipt section and inspection department
should be located closely to the entry point. This avoids
unauthorized entry of persons deep into the stores. Also, there
will be no mix up of incoming and outgoing consignments. The
size and type of stores organization that is needed for receipt and
inspection depend on the quantum of the stores items and other
stores activities. A big undertaking requires several officers at
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different levels and supporting clerical staff in abundant and
whereas a relatively small unit requires only one or two people to
discharge the duties of receiving the material and inspection.
Basically there are two types of organizations for receipt and
inspection, they are centralized and decentralized. In centralized
receipt of inspection organization, all material is routed through a
central receipt and inspection department located in the main
stores. Instead of locating individual reception department in each
plant and stores, a central reception section must work in the main
stores organization for an effective reception of the incoming
materials. As against the centralized reception section, some
organizations establish independent reception section in each of
their stores located in each plant, work place and even if the plants
are located at the same premises. Then reception work is to be
carried out at each point, which ultimately necessitates to have
more number of people to carry out the job of receiving the
materials. This, in turn, increases the salary budget of the
organizations and, finally, it results in poor earnings.
The incoming material supplied by suppliers is verified with
the help of purchase order. The materials will be sent to the
concerned stores department soon after the verification is
completed. If there is any discrepancy between the terms specified
in purchase order and the incoming materials as to quality and
quantity, the materials will be kept in abeyance till the supplier
rectifies the discrepancy. Before delivering the material to the
concerned stores, the items are recorded in the stores ledger.
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Simultaneously, data relating to the incoming materials are fed to
the computer. The concerned stores department after receiving the
material will prepare goods receipt notes (GRN), the proforma of
which is presented in Appendix-I. The stores personnel issues the
materials to the concerned shop floor departments on receipt of
material requisition note (MRN), a proforma of which is presented
in Appendix-II. Materials requisitioned are entered into the ledger
and posted in the terminals of electronic data processing (EDP) for
cross verification. In order to identify stock levels (minimum,
maximum, and reorder levels), the materials in the selected
shipyard companies are broadly classified into:
1. Project items
2. Capital Budget items
3. General items.
Project items consist of machinery used for fitting to the
ship. Capital Budget items include the machinery used by the
shipyard. General items comprise all other materials such as nuts,
bolts, clothing, electrical items, plumbing items, pipes, colours, etc.
Quality assurance department verifies the quality of project
items. Capital Budget items are verified by the commercial
department as well as quality control department. The concerned
customer will verify all other general items. Sometimes, the buyer
of the ship entrusts the task of the Quality control societies. The
task of quality control in case of naval vessels rests with
Directorate of Quality Assurance (WP).
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All the receipts of the materials are subject to the quality
check either by the stores organization or quality Assurance
department of all the selected shipyard companies and or by the
representatives of the buyers of the ships viz., Quality control
societies. If any deviation was observed by all the selected
shipyard companies against the agreed terms and conditions of
supply, the materials will be rejected scrupulously. The deviations
might be time, price, quality, quantity and transit charges etc.,
Non-compliance over terms will automatically gives a right to the
management to reject the whole consignment or part thereof. In
this case, all the selected shipyard companies having a practice of
informing the rejection of the consignment to the supplier within
15 days from the date of the receipt of the materials. The materials
so rejected on various grounds are listed by the concerned officer
with the help of his subordinates who are in-charge of receiving
the incoming materials. They prepare a note on the materials with
the quality and quantity and present the same note to the General
Manager (Commercial) within three days from the date of the
receipt of the materials.
Then, the General Manager (Commercial) authorizes to pass
on message to the concerned parties and requesting them to fulfil
the deviations found for the supplies they made. Due to
decentralization the stores in the premises of all the shipyard
companies, they found it difficult to receive the materials at
various stores located at different places which are away from two
to five kms from the selected shipyard companies. Eventually,
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location of stores at different places give rise to certain problems
like transportation, poor delivery to work spots, communication
problems from the main stores and other stores located outside the
premises of selected shipyard companies.
In order to avoid the incurrence of transportation cost of the
materials, which is now being received from a distant stores of
stock yards, need to be established within the selected shipyard
companies’ premises. This helps the management of all the
selected shipyard companies to centralize the receipt and
distribution of materials from one place thereby, it may exercise
proper control over the movement of valuable scarce materials
and goods.
Quality Control
It is pertinent to have a look at the innumerable items like
materials, equipment, machinery, and fittings that take part in
shipbuilding. These items are supposed to be highly qualitative
because, marine equipment is expected to work in a different
climate on the seas and need to withstand the sea weather
conditions. Whereas, the similar items used in other industries
differ in their quality because, their usage is on surface. Marine
equipment differs from the equipment used in other industries for
established reasons. Firstly, the climatic and weather background
in which the former have to operate namely, the salt–laden water
and atmosphere, widely variant climates and the floating
foundation causes severe limitations on the design of the
equipment. Secondly, the ship form imposes restrictions in respect
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of the weight and space available for machinery and equipment
and their disposition. Thirdly, there are greater risks involved to
life and property that is inherent in sea transportation. Quality
control societies and various governments laid down certain rules
and regulations governing the design, quality, construction and
operation of the equipment. Under these limitations, the principal
design criteria for all-marine machinery and equipment would be
reliability, compatibility with the sea environment, simplicity and
ruggedness, operational costs and weight. Standards of reliability
are much more stringent with marine equipment than with the
corresponding land based equipment. Since, failure at sea can risk
the vessel as well as the valuable lives of the crew. All components
directly exposed to sea water have either to be protected from
corrosion through such means like painting and cathode
protection or should be made with non-corrosive materials.
Materials used in shipbuilding are grouped into nine categories.
They are as follows:
(i) Steel plates and sections
(ii) Steel and non-ferrous pipes
(iii) Timber scantlings and laminates
(iv) Plastic items
(v) Insulation materials
(vi) Electric control panels, cables, switches, switchboards,
fuses etc.,
(vii) Welding materials.
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(viii) Gases like oxygen (industrial grade), acetylene, argon and
Co2 etc.,
(ix) Marine products.
Except the categories iii (viii) and (ix), the remaining other
materials are required well in advance before use. These items
need to be identified and approved by the classification society
entrusted with the classification of the ship. In respect of steel
plates and sections, they are individually stamped by the
classification society prior to their despatch from the integrated
steel mills. Such stamping itself is a certificate of having witnessed
the prescribed material tests and having satisfied itself through
inspection and evaluation that the material is in conformity with
the laid down specifications.
In all the remaining cases, certificates from manufacturers
have to be obtained for submission to the surveyor of the
classification society before their use. As far as timber is
concerned, certain purposes like non-combustible and heat
resistant bulkheads, special timber compositions are prescribed
requiring necessary approval from statutory agencies entrusted
with implementation of safety regulations. In the case of paints,
the ship buyer’s approval is required and this is usually given
only if the paints have an international reputation and is
manufactured by internationally recognized manufacturers.
The ship fittings comprise of material hatch, cargo hatch and
compartment access covers that are required to close the manhole
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and drain plugs. Steel doors, ladders, platforms, ducting, fair
leads, railings, exhaust pipes, cowls, pipe fittings, equipment and
machinery seating, walls, windows, sanitary fittings, side lights,
galley fittings, thermal insulation, accommodation equipment,
clips, distribution boats, cathode protection, switch boards,
indicating panels, electrical cable work accessories, heavy
electrical castings, rudder posts, anchors, lamp and light fittings,
navigational and signal lights, heavy steel chain cables, wireless
sets etc. All these items require the approval of the owner’s
inspection and in some cases like electrical components, valves
and fittings, heavy castings, chain cables, the approval of the
classification society or the statutory authorities is also required.
Ship Board equipment may be grouped as follows.
(i) Kitchen equipment, cooking ranges, stream cookers,
mixing machines, refrigerators deep fryers, water
coolers, boiling pans etc.
(ii) Laundry equipment, hydro extractors, washing
machines, plot work irons, drying chambers, drying
tumblers etc.
(iii) Life saving equipment and other accessories related
with them like jackets, life boats, distress signal
equipment etc.,
(iv) Navigation equipment and other related instruments
like Eco sounder, direction finder, gyro compass, auto
plot telescopes, fog horns, binoculars, lunar equipment
etc.
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(v) Domestic refrigeration systems
(vi) Entertainment equipments
(vii) Fire fighting equipments, fire-extinguishing system,
breathing operators, fire alarm system, portable
extinguishers etc.
(viii) Main and emergency electrical switch boards
(ix) Internal communication systems.
(x) Engine room workshop, machine tools, cranes,
welding and cutting equipment.
(xi) Incinerator.
(xii) Ship wireless equipment including telephones, walky-
talkies, VHF-radio etc.
(xiii) Transformers, batteries, UPS systems with battery
charging outfit.
At this juncture, it is worth-noting that the quality of the
ship entirely depends on the material inputs used in the
construction of the ship. We can expect better quality vessel with
the higher quality of material used.
As per the World Development Report published by United
Nations Development Programme, India is considered as the tenth
industrial power in the world. But it is lagging behind in the
development of ancillary industries to meet Indian Shipbuilding
needs. Even today, the Indian shipbuilding Industry is depending
on foreign supplies for basic and other associated material and
equipment required by it. As long as this dependence continues,
there will be a long lead-time involved in procuring the material.
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At the same time, it is very difficult for the Indian shipbuilders to
go and check the material manufactured by the foreign
manufacturers. Further, the indigenous material, equipment, tools,
spares etc. are also subjected to inferior quality because of the
short sightedness of the manufacturers. Many a time, it was found
that the quality of the supplied items could not match with the
quality of the sample forwarded earlier to the shipyards for
quality check and for price negotiations. The managements of the
shipyards must try to check the quality of each and every item
received by them to ensure the quality of the inputs and thereby,
the quality of the ship constructed.
All the public sector shipyards in the country are having
their own quality check methods either by quality control
department or by the quality control section created for the
purpose. The prime aim of establishing the quality control
department or quality control section is to examine the quality of
the products they received and to ensure the fitness of the quality
to put it in use in the production of a ship. In case of non-
compliance, as regards to the quality, the same is expected to
report to the production, planning and purchase departments
within the shortest possible time. So that the rejected items are
placed separately to avoid the use of such materials, equipments,
spares and other miscellaneous items which are used in
shipbuilding. As known, ships need to sail on the deep seas for a
number of days. Compromising in the quality of the material leads
to break down of the ship in mid of the seas and bringing it to
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normalcy warrants to invest lot of money, efforts and time. As
such, no ship owner prefers, irrespective of the types of ship
(cargo, passenger, liner, oil carrier, anchor, survey vessel, trawler
and Ballard), to take the risks of breakdown as it requires a lot of
patience to attend the repair works on board in the seas. At the
same time, the customers who booked their cargo and material at
different sea ports in the world look for the delivery of their
materials at the earliest, which creates more pressure on the ship
owner.
All the selected shipyard companies have their own quality
assurance section under the direct control of Director (operations).
There are two Additional General Managers in the quality
assurance section to look after the functions of their section. Under
them, there are two chief managers to assist the Additional
General Manager. Under the two chief managers, some
supporting staff is also working in the section to examine the
quality of the materials they received.
Table 3.1 indicates the performance of quality assurance
section of selected shipyard companies during 1998-99 to 2008-09.
In the year 1998-99, the number of consignments received by the
quality assurance section were 1,326, out of which the
consignments examined during the same period wee 1,271. Forty
eight consignments were rejected due to the inferior quality of the
products that they received. In the year 2008-09, the number of
consignments received by the section were 1,684 and the number
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of consignments examined in the same year were 1,563 out of
which 38 were rejected.
Table 3.1
Performance of Quality Assurance Section in Selected Shipyard Companies during 1998-99 to 2008-09
Year No. of
Consignments Received
No. of consignments inspected
No. of Rejections
Percentage of Rejections in Total No. of Consignments received
1998-99 1326 1271 48 3.6
1999-00 1239 1202 44 3.5
2000-01 1124 1008 19 1.7
2001-02 1248 1110 62 4.9
2002-03 1276 1128 41 3.2
2003-04 1396 1227 31 2.2
2004-05 1438 1294 37 2.5
2005-06 1472 1306 51 3.4
2006-07 1526 1387 47 3.0
2007-08 1638 1505 48 2.9
2008-09 1684 1563 38 2.2
Source: Compiled from the records of the selected shipyard companies and on the basis of information collected through face-to-face interaction with the officials of Quality Assurance Section.
The highest number of consignments rejected were found in
the year 2001-02 with 69 rejections. The immediate previous year
i.e. 2000-01, the rejections were 19 out of 1,008 consignments
examined and 1,124 consignments received. The difference
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between the consignments received and consignments examined
was due to the role of quality assurance societies like LRS, IRS,
DQA (WP) and DQA (N) in quality assurance for the material on
behalf of the customers. In view of the growing availability of
varied quality material in the market, the shipyard needs to have
its own check for the material once certified by quality assurance
societies. In other words, all the consignments comprising of
equipment, materials and items are to be examined in the light of
the availability of the fake certificates attached to the materials
received by the shipyard. In such case, the shipyard needs to
employ additional machinery, men and instruments to check the
quality of the material.
The stores management assumes greater importance in the
Indian context because of the stiff supply positions of various
scarce materials. The blocking up of investments in huge amounts
in inventories in the Indian industry attracted the Government of
India and appointed Tandon Committee to recommend steps to
reduce inventories in Indian industries.
The stores organization is responsible for receipt,
standardization, identification, general inspection, and levels of
stock of the incoming materials. Besides these responsibilities,
preservation, storage, distribution and disposal of various
materials are also held by it. The stores location and layout have a
bearing on the organizational effectiveness. Locating the stores,
proximity to user departments is a general practice to minimize
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transportation and other handling expenditure and to ensure
timely supply of the necessary material.
The ship building industry is basically an assembling
industry and which requires over 20,000 items to put in the
construction of the ship. These items need to be procured, stored
and maintained by the stores until the materials are issued to the
various user departments at various time periods.
The stores organization of the selected shipyard companies
along with the roles and positions is given in the chart 3.1 which
tells about various sections and the roles of these sections along
with the number of officers and assistants.
The stores organization in the selected shipyard companies
is headed by officer-in-charge (stores) who is responsible directly
to the General Manager (commercial). In turn, the General
Manager (commercial) is responsible to Chairman-cum-Managing
Director. Under officer-in-charge (stores), there are three different
section-in-charges and are respons8ble for various functions of
stores organization. The officer-in-charge (stores) is in the cadre of
Deputy General Manager and the section-in-charges are in the
cadre of Senior Manager. Under these three section in-charges,
there are five dealing officers, 58 storekeepers and equal number
of stores attendants and mazdoors.
The procedures followed in respect of receipt of materials
involves the physical inspection of the material received and to
examine the quality and quantity against he specifications made in
the purchase order and this is to ensure the suitability of the
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material for the requirements of the companies and to know
whether the supplier fulfilled the terms and conditions laid down
or not.
The stores section after careful inspection of the materials
received, needs to make arrangements for the quality control
check which is going to be done by quality assurance section of the
selected shipyard companies. The selected shipyard companies
have decentralized material receipt centres because it has four to
five store yards located at a distance of two to five kilometers from
the shipyard premises. These decentralized receiving centres
ultimately necessitated to have more number of people to carry
out the job of receiving materials.
If any deviation in the quality and quantity of the material
ordered and received is found, it will be kept in abeyance till the
supplier rectifies the discrepancy. In case of other materials, which
satisfies the stores receipt centre, the items received are recorded
in the ledger and the incoming material particulars are fed to the
computers simultaneously. Afterwards, the receiving officer
prepares a goods receipt note. In case of rejections, if any, the
shipyard companies have a practice of informing it to the supplier
within 15 days from the date of receipt of it by the selected
shipyard companies.
Due to decentralization of all the stores in the premises of
the selected shipyard companies, they are forced to receive the
materials at stores located at different places which are away from
two to five kilometers. Eventually, the location of stores at
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different places gives rise to certain problems like higher
transportation costs, poor delivery of materials, communication
problems and other associated problems. To exercise control over
the materials, it is necessary to locate all the stores at one place, as
such, it is suggested that the selected shipyard companies should
take necessary steps to locate all the stores in the premises of
shipyard companies under review itself.
The materials used in ship construction are expected to work
in a different climate on the seas and they need to withstand for
the sea weather conditions. Marine equipment is different from
the equipment used in other industries as their usage is on surface.